Every week ESPN RISE Volleyball will voice high school bloggers from across the nation. This week we would like to introduce freshman outside hitter Kaitlyn Granger of Arlington High School in Arlington, Texas.

I'm Kaitlyn Granger and a 14-year-old playing varsity for 5A Arlington High School in Arlington, Texas. I have been playing volleyball for seven years, but it wasn't my first activity or my first love!

At three, I started dance and gymnastics and competed in both until I was in the third grade. Soccer and basketball were the sports I began playing at the age of five.

	Photo Courtesy of Granger Family
	Kaitlyn Granger of Arlington (Tex.)

Honestly, I thought soccer was going to be the sport I would play the longest. My D1 soccer team was Solar Red and I played forward. Basketball was the other sport I played and when I first started, boys and girls played together. I was fearless and loved to compete against them (boys)!!

However, when I began to play YMCA volleyball at the age of eight, I instantly fell in love with a something I didn't know existed...volleyball!!

I couldn't get enough of playing!! I went to Arlington Courts (club team ACE) that started a league for kids on Friday nights! I loved that because I had cheer, soccer, and basketball on Saturdays. At 10 years old, I wanted to tryout for the 12's at ACE and made the top team. I decided to limit other activities and focus more time on volleyball.

Texas Advantage (TAV) is where I spent my next two years playing. I was on their top team, 12 TAV Asics, and went to Nationals and placed third, in American Division. That was an awesome feeling!! After 13 TAV Asics the next season, I met my current 14s and future 15s club coaches, the Drewnicks at one of their summer camps.

What attracted me to train with Cilene Drewnick was been the fact that she played in two Olympics for Brazil and had played professional volleyball for 16 years. Over the summer she was involved in the training of the USA Youth National Team, spent a week training University of Nebraska in August and even took Penn State, last May, to train with the Brazilian National Team.

Cilene and her husband, Eduardo Drewnick, took a new club (called Instinct Volleyball Club) and in our first year our 14s Instinct Tigers, won North Texas regionals, qualified for the Tour of Texas (seventh overall), and did well at Nationals in Miami this past summer.

Their drive and enthusiasm helped me decide that my goal was to make varsity as a freshman for a 5A high school team and reached it. Our team had eight seniors, five sophomores, and two freshmen.  I wanted to earn the respect of the coaches (Sue Cauley and Kim Spencer), but most of all the seniors, and know that when I'm out on the court, they can trust me to play my position, and know their experience and guidance has helped me get through my first year.

After making the team, my new goal was to start, and I have done that almost every match this season. As a 5'11 outside hitter, I currently have over 300 kills in my first season. 

Let us know…

kolsen@studentsports.com

Have you joined or ESPN RISE Volleyball Facebook Page?

ESPN RISE Facebook Page